Euskaraz irakurri: “20,000 species of bees”: izena, izana and ezina

Listen to the rumor, the call or the cry of society, assimilate it and transfer the conclusions of the resulting reflection to the public to amplify them and provoke a movement in the receiver, if possible dressing all this with a beautiful, exciting and honest packaging. That is, more or less, the work of a committed artist, and it is the path that the Llodian filmmaker Estibaliz Urresola follows again in her film “20,000 species of bees”recently released in the Official Section of the Berlinale.

In this, his first feature film, Urresola continues, without shying away from his social commitment, the path taken in his successful short film “Cuerdas”, and signs a beautiful and exciting film full of edges, which addresses the issue of transsexual minors and whose The trigger was the suicide of the young Ekai from Ondarro, as the director herself explained to us.

Lucía is an eight-year-old girl who does not feel comfortable when others call her by the name of Aitor, and that discomfort forces her to embark on a trip to relocate one summer (to be honest, in these cases it is what is needed is for the others to place themselves well in front of it) and to get them to name it as they should, since, as it is said in “Irati”, a recently released film by Paul Urkijo, “everything that has a name exists”. Everything that exists requires a proper name, we might add.

‘20,000 species of bees’

As in “Cuerdas”, Urresola once again resorts to professional and non-professional actresses, which in this case are minors, to meticulously portray a delicious group of women marked by action or omission by the shadow of patriarchy: the innocent and brilliant expressiveness of Lucía (Sofía Otero), the silenced but not appeased inner storm (the inertia of capitalism makes us prioritize the urgent over the important) of her mother Ane (Patricia López Arnaiz), the rigidity of her mother Lita ( Itziar Lazkano) and the tenderness of his great-aunt Lourdes (Ane Gabarain).

Beekeeping flies over the film, which combines its sweetest part (there is a precious and pure sequence in which two minors exchange bathing suits, which remains fixed in the viewer’s memory) with the most bitter, in which it is shown what a narrow path both the weight of religious fanaticism and the tyranny of man have left in the lives of some people (those deep wounds left in Ane and Lita by their father).

However, the film’s dualities and certainties end there, and perhaps in the antagonistic ways of looking at the world of the grandmother and the great-aunt, because “20,000 species of bees” dilutes the borders, be they geographical (the protagonists move from Iparralde to Hegoalde), language (Basque, Spanish and French fluent) and, of course, gender.

Estibaliz Urresola, together with the actress Sofia Otero. Photo: Aner Etxebarria.

More than the chronicle of a transit, “20,000 species of bees” is, fortunately, the chronicle of many movements; More than the story of someone drowned by the mistaken and painful looks of others, it is the story of a transit that repositions and enriches the looks of everyone. And also a stimulus for a new, better and possible world.

Hopefully it will soon stop being the story of a purulent sore to become the testimony of a closed wound!

Source: Eitb

Bruce

Bruce is a talented author and journalist with a passion for entertainment . He currently works as a writer at the 247 News Agency, where he has established himself as a respected voice in the industry.